Firestar (11 page)

“Would you
just
look at them!” Kenny gasped, pulling up in a lay-by that gave them a glimpse of the road ahead, for about half a mile further on, a group of at least six giants barred their way.

Kalman’s heart sank as he peered at the wall of giants that stood threateningly across the road.

Larry turned white. “Oh boy!” he muttered, his face the colour of chalk, “they’re really out to get us, aren’t they!”

Inside the van, fear now replaced the
atmosphere
of easy friendship that had grown between the Jelly Beans and the stag.

“It’s too dangerous for me to stay with you any longer,” Kalman observed. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out here and take to the hills.” He flung the giants an assessing glance, knowing that the van wouldn’t stand a chance if they were to attack it. “It’ll be all right,” he assured them, “when they see me on the hill, they’ll leave you alone.” He looked at them grimly. “I’d hoped that we might get closer to Ballater before they stopped us but at least I’m rested now.”

“But Ballater’s miles away,” Larry protested. “The giants might still catch you!”

“Hang on! Don’t get out here,” Kenny said, swiftly reversing the van and driving back the way they’d come. “We passed a lay-by a while back that gives onto the mountain,” he explained, “and further up I noticed a pass. If you cross it, I reckon
you might save a bit of time, for the road takes the long way round. Show him the map, Larry.”

Larry fished in the glove compartment and drew out a rather tattered ordnance survey map. Folding it to where they were on the road, he pointed to the pass and a way across the mountains that would, indeed, cut a huge chunk from the stag’s journey.

Kenny drew up when they reached the bottom of the grassy slope that rose towards the break in the mountains. “That’s the way to go,” he said,
nodding
towards the pass. He switched off the engine and clambered out to open up the back of the van for the stag. Kalman backed his way down onto the road, feeling the stag’s hooves scrabble to get a grip on the tarmac. His antlers proved more of a problem but by carefully turning his head Kenny finally extricated the increasingly panic-stricken stag.

Once clear of the van, the stag lifted its head and stretched its legs with a sigh of relief. The mountain air was fresh and clean and it was glad to be free of the confined space inside the dreadful machine. Concentrating his mind, Kalman calmed the stag and brought it under his control again. Seeing the anxious faces of Larry and Kenny, he felt a twinge of remorse at having put them in such a position and knowing that their danger was real, he stepped forward, gently resting the stag’s head on their shoulders. They thought it was his way of saying thank you for their help but it was more than that, for he was using more of his precious magic to give them what protection he could.

“Thank you,” Kalman said, “you’ll never know
how grateful I am to you. But you’d better hurry for the giants are on their way already.”

Despite the approach of the giants, Larry and Kenny watched in fascinated wonder as the great stag leapt swiftly onto the rough grass and heather of the mountainside and headed up the steep incline towards the pass that would take it deeper into the mountains and closer to Morven. Larry’s eyes clouded with unaccustomed tears as he
clambered
into the van and watched it through the windscreen. “I’ll never forget that stag, Kenny,” he said as he watched it bound upwards, “it was a miracle, like.”

“What we’re needing is another one then,” Kenny snapped, pulling out of the lay-by and
looking
worriedly in the rear-view mirror. “Here come the giants!”

He’d left it a bit late for, even as he took off along the narrow road that hugged the side of the mountain, the giants closed in on the van, roaring and shouting in strange gravelly voices that raised the hair on the back of their necks.

Kalman, however, had made a gross
miscalculation
in assuming that the giants would see him on the mountainside. They only had eyes for the van and it soon became apparent to Kenny and Larry that the giants didn’t know that the stag was no longer there. Totally petrified, Kenny put his foot to the floor and the engine screamed in protest as they rocked and bucketed their way round the many hairpin bends in the road. It was then that a press helicopter soared into view and, as the
cameras
rolled, horrified viewers all over Scotland saw
the giants charging after the speeding vehicle.

“Use the loudspeaker to warn them,” shouted the pilot suddenly to the TV crew for he could see more giants rising from the mountains ahead of the van. It was well and truly trapped. Kenny, with a face as white as chalk, stepped on the brakes as he saw the huge figures appear in front of him and Larry grabbed his arm in terror as the giants closed in on them. Controlled by Lord Jezail, the giants had their instructions. The van had to be destroyed … and that was what they did.

The giants didn’t try to push the car off the road or deliberately thump it with their great hands — they gathered together in a roaring crowd round the van and collapsed on top of it, burying Kenny and Larry under a massive heap of rocks, stones and rubble.

The crew in the helicopter filmed the entire thing, the machine hovering helplessly as clouds of dust filled the air. Alerted by the TV crew,
however
, rescue services were already on their way and by the time the fire engines, police cars and
ambulances
arrived, the dust had settled. Apart from the clatter of the helicopter’s rotors, everything was quiet. The giants had finished their work.

No one held out much hope for Kenny and Larry. “It’ll be a miracle if they’re alive under that lot,” one of the TV crew said, as the helicopter swooped and banked, unable to get as close as they would have liked to the side of the mountain. “They didn’t stand a chance. Their van must have been flattened.”

It took some time for the team of men to remove
the rocks, passing them from hand to hand until the van’s bright fluorescent paintwork emerged. There was a sudden cheer as the men worked with renewed energy to clear the remaining boulders and gasps of amazement from those in the
helicopter
as the van doors were prised open and Kenny and Larry staggered out into the road.

“It’s incredible,” the newscaster said, his voice shrill with relief. “They both seem to be fine. I can see them walking and talking to the firemen. They’re waving to us!
What
an ordeal!”

Kenny and Larry were treated for shock at the local hospital. Outside, reporters and television crews were kept firmly out of the way until the following morning when they’d agreed to give a press conference. Offers for their story, however, were already flooding in.

“One paper’s offering us fifty thousand pounds to tell them what happened,” Larry said, totally gobsmacked. “Just think, Kenny,” his eyes were alight with excitement, “with that amount we could really make something of the band! Maybe hit the big time even!”

“It’s a miracle that you survived at all, you know,” one of the nurses told them as they got ready to leave the next morning. “The firemen can’t understand how the rocks didn’t flatten your van completely. You can thank your lucky stars that you came through it all without a scratch!”

“It was the stag’s magic that saved us, wasn’t it,” Larry whispered as the nurse waved them goodbye and they set off along the passage towards a waiting policeman. “I’m sure of it.”

Kenny nodded. “We’d better no’ mention the stag to these reporters, though,” he cautioned, thinking of the forthcoming press conference, “for there’s no way they’d publish our story if we start talking about magic. They’d just think we were basket cases.”

“Aye,” Larry agreed, “best to stick to us being the Jelly Beans and looking for gigs in Aberdeen.”

“Up with the Jelly Beans!!” grinned Kenny,
suddenly
triumphant. “Larry, mate,” he grabbed him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes, “Larry, mate! I think our luck is finally changing!”

“Ian,” Helen Ferguson sat up in bed, “Ian, wake up!” She eyed the alarm clock in disbelief as she shook her husband again. “Ian, wake up! Somebody’s knocking at the door! It’s three o’clock in the morning!”

“Dad,” Shona ran into the bedroom in her pyjamas, “Dad! Get up! There’s somebody at the door!”

Ian Ferguson woke from a deep sleep and looked at Shona blankly as she tugged at the duvet. “Quick, Dad! See who it is!”

Mrs Ferguson tied the cords of her
dressing-gown
and slipped her feet into a pair of slippers.

“What’s going on?” her husband muttered. “What time is it?”

“Three o’clock.”

“Three o’clock! In the morning!” He put his feet in his slippers. “Who on earth can it be,” he
muttered
, heading for the stairs.

By this time Neil, Clara and Lewis were awake, too, and peering round their bedroom doors, watched in alarm as Shona’s dad went
downstairs
.

“Ian, Ian,” a voice shouted urgently, “it’s Peter Sinclair! Can you open the door? We’re freezing!”

Ian unlocked the door and pulled back the chain. The blast of cold air that swept in made them all shiver as Peter Sinclair, his wife and Jennifer all tumbled hurriedly into the hall.

Ian shut the door hastily against the icy draught. “Peter,” he said, looking at him in disbelief; for under their overcoats the Sinclairs were still in their nightclothes. Helen Ferguson took one look at the shivering group and turned the thermostat up to full.

Jennifer
was
frozen. The journey over the
mountains
had been a nightmare and she had made it with only a coat over her nightie and bare legs thrust into a pair of trainers. Shona, knowing only too well the distance they had travelled, looked at her worriedly. Jennifer was not only cold, she was trembling with fright. “We saw them,” she
whispered
to Shona. “We saw the giants! They were in our glen!”

There was no more sleep for anyone that night. The storm outside shrieked and whistled as, clutching mugs of coffee and hot chocolate they huddled round the embers of the living room fire. Ian stirred them into life and deftly adding more logs, nursed the flames until a blazing fire roared up the chimney.

For a few minutes, the Sinclairs just stared into the fire, still shocked from their ordeal.

“What happened, then, Peter?” Ian asked
tentatively
.

“It was in my mind that they’d soon be reaching our glen.” Peter said, sipping his coffee gratefully. “I kept watch from our bedroom window but I couldn’t see much for the storm. It was the most amazing thing, Ian. There was a lot of lightning and I saw them, then. They just seemed to rise from the slopes of the mountainside. I woke Mary
and we got Jennifer out of bed, flung on our coats and took off into the night. They were close behind us and moving at quite a speed. We could hear the crash of their footsteps!”

“They? You mean there was more than one?”

“I saw three of them.”

Ian half-started from his chair. “Where are they now?” he asked in alarm. “Did they reach our glen?”

Mary Sinclair shook her head. “One of them reached the top of the ridge,” she said, “we saw it quite clearly against the skyline — and then,” she hesitated, “it was quite sad really. It seemed to grow bigger for a few seconds and then it just crumbled away.”

Her husband nodded. “The old stories of the Cri’achan are coming true, Ian. They’re walking the hills.” He held out his hands to the fire and paused. “That’s why I’ve decided to move out,” he admitted. “I’m taking Mary and Jennifer to Aberdeen when it gets light. I was wondering … do you think Hughie will lend us his car?”

“Don’t be silly, Peter,” Ian said immediately. “I’ll drive you there myself. Going to stay with your mother, are you?”

“Yes, until this all blows over,” was the answer.

“If the giants get any closer,” Ian said
thoughtfully
, “then we’ll be moving out, as well.”

“Leave Glenmorven!” Shona sat up, her face a picture of horror. “Dad, what are you saying? We can’t leave the glen!”

Neil, Clara and Lewis looked at one another.

“I think you children should go back to bed,
now, for what’s left of the night,” Shona’s mother fussed, suddenly worried that too much was being said in front of her guests. “Jenni looks exhausted, poor thing. Let her share your bed tonight, Shona,” she added. “She’s been through a lot.”

Jennifer did look white and strained. “Come on, Jenni,” Lewis said as they all got to their feet. “It’s over now.”

“And just think of the tales you’ll have to tell when we get back to school,” Shona added, trying to coax a smile out of her. “It’s not everyone that’s seen a stone giant!”

Jenni grinned weakly but it was only when she reached the bedroom that she started to cry. “It’s Ugly Mug,” she wept, sitting on the edge of Shona’s bed, twisting a tissue in her hands. “Dad wouldn’t let me look for her. He said there was no time but it would only have taken me a minute to grab her.”

“Surely her mother will feed her,” Clara pointed out.

Jennifer shook her head. “Mitzi’s in Aberdeen at the vet. And if Ugly Mug’s left alone, she’ll starve!”

Shona looked at Clara and nodded
understandingly
. Ugly Mug meant everything to Jenni. The kitten was her friend and playmate.

“Don’t cry, Jenni,” Shona said, putting an arm round her. “The stone giants have gone. You heard what your mother said. They broke up, didn’t they?” She glanced at Clara. “So there’s no reason why we shouldn’t go back to your house tomorrow to get Ugly Mug.”

Clara nodded. “We’ll take some cat food with us so that we can catch her.”

“And,” added Shona, “if
we
end up in Aberdeen with my gran, we’ll be able to give her back to you, how’s that?”

“We’ll be okay. We’ll all go,” Clara said, seeing Jenni’s worried face. “It won’t take that long, will it?” She looked at Shona for back-up.

Shona grinned. “If we hurry, it’ll only take us a couple of hours at the most to get there and back.”

Jennifer’s face lit up as she scrubbed the tears from her face with a tissue that was already
sodden
.

Clara smiled. “We’ll all go together,” she said, “and we’ll bring Ugly Mug back with us!”